


It's All In My Head

by greengirl82



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Altered Mental States, Angst, Delusions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Institutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-03
Updated: 2012-06-03
Packaged: 2017-11-06 17:21:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/421401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greengirl82/pseuds/greengirl82
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emily wakes up in a mental institution with no idea how she got there...</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's All In My Head

Albert Einstein said, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." 

Emily groaned as she heard a loud buzzing ring out over her head, causing her to reach her arm over to bang on the alarm only to hit a desk.

"Ugh" Emily moaned out, lifting her head and frowning.

Opening her eyes she was startled to see she wasn't in her bedroom, and she wondered where the hell she was.

Pushing up off the bed, she felt herself sway, disoriented, she had to hold on to the dresser next to her to get her barrings.

Grasping the edge of the dresser, she slowly moved towards the door pausing when she noticed the door slowly open.

"Oh, good you're up" the woman said, "We're all meeting in the day room. Are you ready, Emily?"

"Who are you?" Emily asked, rubbing her eyes, "Where the hell am I?"

"Emily, are you alright?" the woman asked, "The medication, it makes you a little loopy coming off of it. Do you need any help to the sun room?"

"Huh?" Emily said looking over at the woman, "Sun room?"

The woman takes Emily by the elbow, "Come on, lets get you to group."

"Group?" Emily asked, rubbing her pounding head, "Where am I? Why does my head hurt?"

"That would be the Lithium" the woman said, "You'll feel out of it for awhile, but you should level out within a few hours."

Emily's head popped up, looking over at the woman, "Lithium? An anti-psychotic medication? Why was I given an anti-psychotic?"

The woman stopped in place, "Emily, you know about your episodes. Don't you remember?"

"What episodes?" Emily asked looking around, noticing several people in hospital scrubs and uniforms, "Wait, why am I here? Where's Hotch or Dave?"

The woman looked over at two burly men, "Emily, calm down, please."

Shaking her head, she wrenched her arm out of the woman's grasp, "No, no I won't calm down. What the hell am I doing in here?"

"Security." the woman called out, motioning towards Emily.

"Why am I here?" Emily asked, "Why are you doing this to me? Where's my team?"

The two men grab on to Emily's arms pulling her towards a back room, "Where am I? Why am I here? Tell me."

"It's all right" the bigger man told her, "Just calm down, Emily."

"Where's my team?" Emily demanded, "Let me talk to Hotch."

The man looked over at his orderly partner, "Better call White."

Emily looked between the two men, "I'm a Federal Agent, and I demand to speak to my Unit Chief."

Taking a deep breath, "That one again."

The two orderlies pulled the reluctant brunette into the room.

Emily was placed down on a bed, "You sit here and cool down. Dr. White's going to be in to see you."

"Who the hell is Dr. White?" Emily demanded staying put on the small bed.

"Your doctor." the older man said, walking towards the door, "Just try and remain calm, you should be out of the cell soon."

As soon as the door to the small room was closed, Emily got off the bed, turning the knob trying to get out. 

"Damn it" Emily sighed, pacing back and forth, trying to go over the previous twenty four hours.

She remembered getting into bed at her apartment with Sergio snuggling up next to her. She remembered setting her alarm to get up for work and that was it.

Turning when she heard a lock turn, nearly rushed the door when an older man came in.

"Hello, Emily" the man said, "You remember me, Dr. White?"

"Not really" Emily muttered.

The doctor nodded, "Well that's expected with your coming off the Lithium."

Emily bit her lip, "Why am I here? Who checked me in here?"

Dr. White slowly moved in, "Your mother did."

"Well then I want to check myself right on out" Emily told him, "I'm suppose to be going to work."

The doctor slowly shook his head, "You don't have a job, Emily. It's all part of your illness, your mother has Power of Attorney and demanded full treatment."

"She what?" Emily asked stunned, "I haven't seen my mother in years."

As the doctor inhaled, "Emily, you've been in and out of treatment for nearly five years."

"What exactly is it that I supposedly did to wind up in here?" Emily demanded, taking a deep breath, "I hope you realize that holding a Federal agent against her will is a felony."

Dr. White shook his head, "Emily, you're not an FBI agent. That's one of your hallucinations."

Emily scoffed, "Are you high? I don't have hallucinations. I'm not crazy."

The doctor walked over to the small metal chair, "No one's saying you're crazy, Emily. You've just got issues that need to be sorted out. That's what we're doing here, helping you sort out the confusion."

Walking over to the doctor, "No you don't seem to get it, I'm fine. I'm not confused and I don't have issues, I just want to go home."

As Emily walked to the door, "Emily, you are home."

Emily spun around quickly, "Is that some kind of joke? Look I don't know if you're just a really caring doctor or if you were paid off, but if I don't get to speak with my Unit Chief in two minutes I'm going to call every single media outlet and let them know that you are holding a sane, competent Federal agent against their will and I shit you not there will be a storm brought down on you..." 

"Emily, you need to calm down" Dr. White told her walking over to her.

"No, Doctor. I won't calm down," Emily said backing towards the door, "Not until someone tells me why I'm here. Let me talk to my boss, hell even my mother."

"Emily, you've been in and out of institutions for over five years" the Doctor told her, "You never were an FBI agent. You don't work for the Behavioural Analysis Unit."

Shaking her head, "No, you're lying" Emily told him, "I know I'm a FBI agent."

"Emily, you're suffering from schizophrenia" the doctor said stunning the brunette, "These fantasies of you being a Federal agent are part of your disease, they're hallucinations."

Narrowing her eyes, "No, you're trying to confuse me" Emily accused him, "How much? Two hundred thousand, three? How much is she paying you to keep me locked up? Huh? Well guess what? I'm not staying and you can't make me."

"Emily" the doctor's soft voice said, "Please..."

Marching for the door, Emily turns around, "Look something is wrong here. Something is really wrong here and I'm not going to sit around here, I need to get back to the real world."

Turning back to the door, the two orderlies stand their, "Problem, doctor?"

"Lets let her choose" Dr. White said, "Emily?"

"Get out of my way" Emily ordered, trying to push past the two large men, "I've taken down unsubs bigger then you, so get out of my way."

"Unsubs again?" the doctor told her, "Emily, you're not an FBI agent, please just calm down."

"No" Emily said, "Move."

Emily shoved the orderlies backwards, trying to rush out, "Emily, you need to calm down or they're going to put you in the jacket again."

Emily whirled around at that, confused and horrified "Again?"

"Emily, please" the doctor said, "There's something that you need to see."

The two orderlies grasped onto Emily's shoulders as the doctor walked her out of the isolation room.

"Take your hands off of me" Emily ordered as they followed the doctor down the hall, "I don't belong here, I'm not a schizophrenic. This is all some misunderstanding."

As they all entered the White's office, they led Emily to a chair making her sit down. She turned, noticing them standing guard by the door, while the doctor walked over to the flat screen television.

Focusing her attention on the man in the white coat, holding up a DVD, "Emily, you need to watch this, ok?"

"Why, what's so important about that?" Emily asked suspiciously.

"Just please watch this" Dr. White told her, placing the small disc in the player.

Emily sat there in stunned silence, not focusing on the orderlies helping her stand up as they all walked out of the room.

The last moment of the DVD playing over and over in her mind. It scared her to realize that he may have been telling the truth.

Looking down at the waxed floor, she had that moment replaying in her head.

"Tell me who you are" Dr. White said.

"Agent Emily Prentiss," Emily replied, "I'm an Federal Agent with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. I was briefly in the JTF-12."

Dr. White wrote down the information, "Who is your team leader?"

"Supervisory Special Agent In Charge Aaron Hotchner" Emily answered quickly, "He's the Unit Chief for the BAU."

"BAU" White repeated, "What if I told you that you weren't an agent?"

"I'd tell you you're a liar" Emily told him, "I'm an FBI agent. My Section Chief is Erin Strauss and I work with a famous writer named David Rossi."

White shook his head, "Dave Rossi the best selling crime writer? He died in 2007 in an automobile accident."

Pulling out a laptop, White turned the screen around, "Their is a Behavioral Analysis Unit in the FBI, but that's runned by an Henry Archer, not any Hotchner" Tapping on the screen, "As far as I looked there is no Aaron Hotchner in existence."

Emily's eyes looked over at the screen, reading and re-reading everything. The look on her face on the screen went from confusion, to fear to anger.

Her face scrunching up as she read, the brunette grabbed onto the laptop throwing it across the room, she shoved the table away from her screaming.

"Why are you doing this me?" Emily shouted, "Why are you doing this to me? They're real, I know it."

Dr. White shook his head, "I'm sorry Emily, they were never real. They were all a figment of your imagination. You never were in the FBI." 

Sitting in her room, Emily shook her head at the absurdity of what she saw.

She subconsciously bit at her thumb nail while her foot began tapping over and over on the linoleum floor.

"This... that can't be true" Emily muttered to herself, "I remember the day that I graduated the Academy."

"Emily," the nurse Beth said, softly approaching, "The sooner you learn to accept this, the quicker we can get you on the correct course of treatment."

"Treatment?" Emily asked picking up the medication, looking at her name tag "Beth."

"We all want you to get better Emily" Beth told her, "You just have to want it."

Emily nodded, placing the pills in her mouth. She took the water, bringing it to her lips, as the brunette nurse walked away.

"Right" Emily scoffed, spitting the pills in her hand, "Like I'm going to believe you people."

She moved over to the flower pot on her small desk, sticking the pills into the small patch of dirt in the plant and thumbing it down to hide it.

Turning on her heels, she sat down on the bed, resting against the headboard staring straight ahead at the wall with a smile on her face.

"I know what's real" Emily muttered closing her eyes, "I won't let you confuse me." 

"Emily?" she heard, causing the brunette to open her eyes, "Emily? Talk to me, are you ok?"

"Hotch?" Emily said groggily, "Is that you?"

"Thank God, you're awake" Hotch's relieved voice said.

Emily groaned as she sat up, looking around, "What happened?"

"You got tackled by the unsub" Dave said, as the two men helped her stand up, "Are you sure you're ok? You were out for quite awhile. We thought we lost you."

"You did lose me" Emily murmured softly, "I felt so lost, alone."

The two men exchanged a look, "But you're back now. Back where you belong." Hotch assured her.

Stretching her arms, she looked over at the two men, "I know. Now what?"

"We go back to the station and pack up to fly home" Hotch reminded her, "Unless you'd like to stop by the hospital to get checked out."

Emily felt her stomach tighten at that thought, "Nah, nothing but a little bump on head. I'll ice it when we get on the jet."

Emily followed the two men towards the Bureau issued SUV, sitting in the backseat in silence.

She felt a tug at her heart as she watched the two men in the front talking, closing her eyes briefly she could hear both worlds calling her.

"Emily?" Hotch's voice called out, looking at her in the rear view mirror, "Emily are you all right?"

"Emily?" Dr. White called out, shining a light in her eyes, "Emily can you hear me?"

Popping her eyes opened, "I'm awake."

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Insanity is often the often the logic of an accurate mind overtaxed."

 

THE END


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